Oleksiak, who has just three points in 21 games this season, hasn’t played since Dec. 9. It will be interesting to see where he fits in, if he does at all immediately.

One report suggests the Penguins had been interested in Oleksiak’s services for a while, and that the deal came together pretty quickly.

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford suggested that a ‘major trade’ could happen if the Penguins continue to struggle.

Pittsburgh dropped a 4-2 decision to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday and sit outside the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.

“We’re coming into a critical period where we’ll make a decision whether we need to shake things up or not,” Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last Wednesday. “We’re good enough to be better than we’re doing. Hopefully, that’s the way it goes here in the next little while. If it doesn’t, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that a major trade would come out of this.”

The Penguins have two fourth-round picks in 2019 at the moment and the Stars will get whichever one is higher, according to Shapiro.

Meanwhile, Leighton was sent down to Wilkes-Barrie/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Matt Murray is back to full health with the Penguins and Tristan Jarry has been phenomenal as a backup (and starter) when called upon.

It’s been an interesting season for Leighton, who will join his third NHL team after previously being with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Leighton is on a two-way deal with $650,000 at the NHL level and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

Leighton has played in just seven NHL games over the past seven seasons and unless the Penguins want to give Jarry more playing time in the AHL, it seems unfathomable that he’d become the backup going forward.

Things haven’t gone as planned for the Wisconsin Badgers. They had to spend the first part of the season without Nic Kerdiles thanks to a silly NCAA suspension and they started off abysmal going 1-7-2 in their first 10 games. Once the calendar flipped to December, they caught fire going 8-0-3 over their next 11.

Things have slowed down in the second half though and after splitting with No. 2 Minnesota, they split at home with D-I newcomers Penn State. Their overtime loss on Monday dropped them to 26 in the Pairwise. Facing off with WCHA front-runners Nebraska-Omaha and St. Cloud State in the final two weekends isn’t their (or anyone else’s) idea of fun except for maybe Badgers haters.

For Nebraska-Omaha, it’s been a steady roll through the season for them. Ryan Walters’ season has been outstanding and he’ll surely be in the hunt for the Hobey Baker Award. His point scoring abilities have paced the Mavericks all year and the help he’s given his teammates has been huge even with some minor drama in goal.

That said, they’re in a bit of a funk now have lost three of their last five games and sit three points back of SCSU for first in the conference. If they want a better opponent in the first round of the WCHA tournament they’ll have to fight with Minnesota, North Dakota, and Minnesota State as well as St. Cloud to do it.

NHL prospects to watch

If you’ve seen UNO on NBCSN before, you know all about junior forward Ryan Walters. He’s undrafted but second in the country in points with 45, trailing only St. Lawrence’s Greg Carey. The guys Walters is hooking up include sophomore forward Josh Archibald (Pittsburgh) and undrafted junior Matt White. Their top line is dynamic and senior defenseman Bryce Aneloski (Ottawa) can score from the point.

Wisconsin doesn’t have the usual bevy of big talent, but who they do have is pretty good. Junior forward Michael Mersch (Los Angeles) leads the team in goals and points with 17-9-26. While freshman Nic Kerdiles (Anaheim – pictured) missed 10 games, he’s produced well with 6-11-17 in 22 games.

Sophomore forward Joe LaBate (Vancouver), sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe (Buffalo), and senior blue liner John Ramage (Calgary) have been solid contributors. McCabe was also key in the Team USA World Junior gold medal win this year.

The battle to earn the top spot in the WCHA is raging on and tonight’s game features two teams trying to keep pace with St. Cloud State to earn the crown. For homestanding Nebraska-Omaha, it’s been a good run of late. They’ve won five of their last eight and only have losses to Michigan Tech and Denver in that span.

We’ve seen UNO a couple times this season and we’ve seen all shades of what they can do. From steamrolling the likes of Army and Colorado College, losing a nailbiter to Notre Dame and getting blown away by Denver. They’ve been tough in conference but handling North Dakota presents one huge line of issues for coach Dean Blais’ team to contend with.

For the former Fighting Sioux, they have a dynamic duo of scorers in Danny Kristo and Corban Knight (pictured) for the UNO defense to contend with. They’ve been getting points aplenty over the last couple months, but lately wins have escaped them. In their past eight games, North Dakota is just 2-3-3. On the upside, they’re 1-0-2 in their last three. Hey, a tie is better than a loss… Right? By the way, North Dakota has 14 NHL-drafted players on their roster. Not a bad job of recruiting there by Dave Hakstol.

NHL prospects to watch

UND has a veritable army of players to keep an eye on. The big two are both seniors in Knight (Florida) and Kristo (Montreal). They’re supported by a few others that you may have heard of. Freshman forward and Team USA WJC gold medalist Rocco Grimaldi (Florida) and sophomore forward Mark MacMillan (Montreal) have provided them with a solid secondary attack. There’s a lot to work with here for North Dakota including undrafted guys like senior forward Carter Rowney and junior goalie Clarke Saunders.

UNO’s top players are more or less undrafted players. Senior forward Ryan Walters leads the team in points and is a likely free agent signing after his season is over. Sophomore forward Josh Archibald (Pittsburgh) is Walters’ go-to guy on the attack. Sophomore Dominic Zombo and junior Matt White follow up as other undrafted players leading the charge.

The Dutchmen haven’t had quite the follow-up to their Frozen Four season last year. Union has won just once in their last eight games going 1-4-3 in that stretch. Sophomore Team USA star Shayne Gostisbehere has been part of a steady attack for the team scoring five goals with eight assists this year. If Union is going to snap out of it and start making another run for the NCAA tournament, doing damage in conference against teams like Princeton is the way to do it.

Princeton, meanwhile, are winners of two in a row beating out Ivy League rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. Back on December 1 they earned a 4-4 tie with Union in Schenectady. Now that they’re on a mini-roll and on their home ice at Hobey Baker Rink, they’re hoping to keep the good times going.

NHL prospects to watch: Union has a pair of them in Gostisbehere (Philadelphia) and freshman defenseman Tim Boyle (Ottawa). They also have solid undrafted players like Kyle Bodie, Wayne Simpson, and senior defenseman Greg Coburn, brother of Flyers blue liner Braydon Coburn. Last year’s Hobey Baker finalist Troy Grosenick still leads the way in goal.

Now they’re back into the WCHA schedule facing a Nebraska-Omaha team riding high off their weekend sweep of Colorado College last week. The Mavericks had a bit of bad news this week as Flyers prospect goalie Anthony Stolarz departed for the OHL. On the upside, recently absent goalie Ryan Massa has come back thanks to his departure.

It’s the final weekend of WCHA action and the No. 9 Denver Pioneers need a strong finish to stay in the hunt with Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. Having to go on the road to Nebraska Omaha to take on the Mavericks (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN) won’t make it easy.

The Pioneers are led by coach George Gwozdecky and head into this weekend’s series losers of two of their last three games. After losses to both Wisconsin and North Dakota, the Pioneers will look to the Shore brothers Drew (Florida Panthers) and Nick (Los Angeles Kings) as well as Jason Zucker (Minnesota Wild – pictured) to buoy their offense. Denver needs one win this weekend to lock up finishing third in the WCHA.

Scoring goals isn’t usually a problem for Denver, however. Stopping pucks is their bugaboo. Sophomore Sam Brittain (Florida) has been their main man in goal since returning from injury. When Brittain hasn’t been getting the start, freshman Juho Olkinuora has been the best of what Denver has in goal. If DU is going to make a run through the WCHA playoffs and to the NCAAs, it’ll need to be Brittain that leads the way.

Nebraska Omaha comes into tonight’s game in the middle of the pack in the conference and trying to avoid potentially falling to eighth in the WCHA. Finishing sixth or better earns them home ice in the first round of the conference playoffs next weekend and a better chance of winding up in the Final Five in St. Paul.

The Mavericks are led by legendary coach Dean Blais. You might recall Blais from his effort coaching the 2010 American World Junior Championship team to the gold medal over Canada. The Mavericks, meanwhile, have had their ups and downs this season and come into this weekend losers of three of their last four.

Sophomore Matt White (pictured) has been their superstar on offense this season with 17 goals and 39 points. Meanwhile junior Terry Broadhurst and freshman Jayson Megna are also 30-point scorers for the Mavericks. Freshman and Penguins draftee Josh Archibald has had a quietly good season with 10 goals. Bryce Aneloski (Ottawa Senators) leads the way on defense and provides some scoring touch as well with six goals and 20 points.

In goal, the Mavericks are splitting duties up between freshman Ryan Massa and senior John Faulkner. Massa has gotten three more starts and put up much better numbers than Faulkner. Expect Massa to get the call for UNO down the stretch, freshman or not.